My vote for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 are the people who invented printable plastic IR photovoltics. Sure they could give them the Physics Prize, but I think the Peace Prize is more appropriate. They created a way to cheaply turn waste heat into energy, and if that doesn’t contribute to world peace I don’t know what does. With these cells people can purify water then crack it into hydrogen, in some of the most remote parts of the world. They could also make clothes that actively cool you and run your Ipod or pace maker.
The best part about this technology versus traditional photovoltics is that you can make an IR house wrap that is completely by siding or roofing and the IR reemitted from the material will still “illuminate” the material and generate energy. Since it is a film it can be put between plates of glass in windows to make them super insulating and spin the meter backwards or rolled out in huge sheets to drive a pump and ozone generator in an African village.
Once they get that tiny problem of how to make the energy useful solved this invention could change the world.
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